While riding my bicycle home from my Italian 113 class in Gordy Hall on a sunny Athens day, I decided to stop in at Campus Sundry for a cold beverage. I was leaning my bike against the cement block outside when a meter officer came running across the street toward me. She was breathing heavily and looked angry, as if someone stole her precious ticket-giving machine. I quickly learned she did not lose her machine after all and began demanding identification from me. She then punched out a $20 violation for riding my bicycle on the sidewalk and pointed to the nearest Bicycles Prohibited sign, if you could even call it that. It only makes sense to me that if Athens Police are ticketing bicyclists, who in a split second cross from private property to public property, then the signs prohibiting where you can and cannot ride bicycles should be kept visible. Who really knows when they go from on-campus to off-campus in this small-town campus? Am I alone in feeling this way?
John Cancila is a sophomore studying MIS and Management.
4 Opinion
